After much internal debate, I have finally made my decision. As soon as the new race changes are available, Beru will become a troll.

I have struggled with this decision since they announced that Druids could be Trolls. I have loathed the female Tauren casting model ever since vanilla. So much so that Savory Deviate Delight was considered a “raid consumable” to me. When they announced ToL – a form that I got to raid in and hide that god awful Tauren casting animation, I was thrilled. But then they took my ToL away from me, and forced me back into that horrible clunky animation. And shifting still removes all costume effects.

Many times in my debate I have wondered if I would feel weird playing a toon that I have been playing for the past 6 years if she was “different”. I have struggled with if I thought I would lose part of “Beru” by race changing her. I like the gentle giants that the Tauren represent in WoW lore. I think that Thunder Bluff is beautiful. But when push comes to shove – on the day I created my druid, if Troll had been an option, I would probably have never gone Tauren to begin with.

I had thought that I made up my mind a while back on this dilemma…and then they introduced troll flight form. It’s cool, sure. But HELLO – it’s a friggin’ dude. The fact that I was going to morph into a male bat for flight form put a bit of a hiccup in my decision. I understand the lore reasoning for needing a different flight form. And, I do think that the flight form is kinda cool. But IT IS DECIDELY MALE. Seriously, would it have taken much more time/effort to code in a female version of the damn bat?

So here I was, uncertain again.

Sure, just like everyone else I weighed out the pros and the cons of the differing racials, etc. But when it came down to it, my desire to not to be a female Tauren caster is so strong that it outweighs just about everything else – including bat boy. It may seem superficial (and it is), it may seem silly (and it is), but in the end, and after 6 years of hating it, I just don’t want to deal with having to look at the female Tauren casting model any longer.

The more I thought about it, there were only two things I would miss about Beru being a Tauren: The new cultivation racial (hey, don’t knock the power of speed herbing in flight form until you’ve tried it) and warstomp. And in the end – those two things just weren’t enough to hold me.

I think I came to this decision over the weekend, when I made an attempt to “pre-purchase” a race change. (which as a side note isn’t available for druids, you get an “you have no races to change to” error message when you attempt to process the payment). In the end – it’s not permanent. If I hate it, I can always go back to being the gentle giant. Until then, and as soon as they are available, I will enjoy my more svelte figure and relish in the fact that I will no longer sound like a member of the 1976 East German Women’s Olympic Swim Team.

So, I’m curious! How many other of my Tauren brothers and sisters will be feeling the Mojo come Cataclysm?

27 responses to “I’ve Made My Decision, Mon.”

I always feel better after making a decision! Likewise, I just don’t like the female Tauren casting animations – I really can’t blame you. The troll ones are great, though! In fact trolls are just awesome. Congrats on your upcoming trollishness! (Feeling the mojo, haha. :D)

I’m an Ally girl, but when I dabble in Horde, trolls are a big no-no for me. I don’t like their bodies, I don’t like their hair, and I think the new flight form is ugly (and not because it’s male). My highest level Horde is actually a tauren and her animations don’t bother me at all… but I’m not sure how I’d feel after 6 years. Congrats on the decision and have fun being a troll 😀

I’m glad you made a choice you’re happy with! Will you change her name?

You followed my agonizing on twitter about whether or not I could faction change – in the end, I think she’s Norm, in all her ladycow glory. I could change any of my alts but never her. Fortunately I like the tauren casting animations and her husky voice, my shaman is a female tauren, too.

I am looking forward to rolling a new troll druid though – maybe male, so BatBoy doesn’t bug me as much! Though Zen’Tabra really brings that lady troll sass!

I play ally and will be going worgen when they’re up. I too got so used to ToL and loved it, I saw old videos and now I’m stuck with awkward male nelf casting animations and stiff arms. The shapeshift will be worth it I hope 😛

I agree with you Beru. I simply do not like the tauren casting model, so Killingly will be getting his mojo. Of course, I say this, but I am still debating whether my pally will become a tauren for the racials, despite the fact he will be casting the majority of the time.

The racial benefits alone outweigh the cosmetic oddities. I too was kind of worried about changing Niq and how it would affect me and my history with the character. I figured that if the whole world of Azeroth was going to change, I may as well change with it.

I’m staying NE and Tauren. I get a strong sense of a character’s identity from their race and once somebody is ‘right’ then I can’t tinker with it. When my husband went hordeside only one of my toons faction transfered and that was a mage that I had never found a place for. I leveled my baby tauren shaman and little tauren druid so that the allies could stay just as they are.

I’m not a tauren, but I do like troll females. I know a lot of people complain, but I think if you’ve been horde you learn to see the beauty in most of the races. I had the same with alliance when I first switched to it.. I thought human females were incredibly ugly and chunky, but now I actually really enjoy them.

Tauren females are okay to me, but I don’t see myself ever having one for my main. They just seem so big and cumbersome. I’ve played one – but never for too long cause I end up wanting something more gracious.

I find most of the shapeshifts to look somewhat male, but at least for the others you can imagine it being female – whereas the flight form is very decidedly male. I hate the warlock demon form for the same reason. Why in the world would I want to pop into a male form – even if it’s just for 45 seconds? I wish they’d spent a little bit more time either doing a more neutral form, or a female form as well (same for your flight form).

I agree that after playing horde for any period of time, you find the beauty in all of the races. And I love the way Beru looks as long as she’s not casting. And since I spend all of my time casting…well, it’s really hard not to at least give the trolls a try!

That being said, I’ve heard other people rant just as much about how horrible they think that Troll casting animations are, so I suppose everyone has their differences! 😉

I’ve been thinking about making a Horde Druid. If I do it will definitely be a Tauren. The Tauren are my favorite horde race, though I really prefer the males (which would also solve the problem of the masculine looking tree form). The other day I looked closely at troll feet for the first time. That plus the flight form are enough to turn me off trolls.

I’ve just completed a race change on my main today – needed a change! =)
but oh woe, now I find myself having lost my shiny darnassian nightsaber which I owned on my human – they changed it into a steed (which makes no sense at all, but oh well), argh!! x(

I play Alliance mainly, but my baby druid is going troll – I don’t particularly like the night elves nor the worgen casting, and my first ever character was a troll so I have quite a deep affinity for that mojolicious Darkspear tribe.

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